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Pinochet era legacy still a barrier to media diversity in Chile

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(RSF/IFEX) - 10 September 2012 - As Chile remembers the September 1973 coup, Reporters Without Borders solemnly calls on the political and administrative authorities, together with professional organizations and appropriate representatives of civil society, to promote a new legal framework for the media. Hopes for genuine pluralism that takes account of the diversity of the media and the news sector cannot be realized under a status quo inherited from the Pinochet era (1973-1990), which is a driving force of unrest in the country. "The decriminalization of press offences, defamation in particular, remains an issue in Chile, while Argentina and Brazil tackled it in 2009," the press freedom organization said.

"To this must be added the essential matter of legislation guaranteeing equal space or broadcasting time for the various types of media, whether they be state-run, commercial or community-based. Reporters Without Borders has backed this principle in other countries in the region where laws of this type have been enacted, such as Argentina, or are being considered, such as Ecuador, while remaining vigilant as to how they are applied. The search for balance must be accompanied by safeguards to guarantee independence."

Writing on the wall for state media?

The debate has been reopened with the announcement of the closure on 24 September of the newspaper La Nación, which employs some 30 journalists, and is 70 percent owned by the state and 30 percent by private investors.

The start of the presidency of Sebastian Pinera in 2010 signalled the end of the print edition of the newspaper, which now only has a presence online. The scheduled closure of La Nación has aroused fears among professional organizations of the further concentration of the print media in the hands of the country's two main commercial groups, El Mercurio and Copesa (publisher of the daily La Tercera). In broadcasting, there are similar fears concerning the privatization of the National Television network, which could shortly be the subject of legislation.

Community radio in limbo

A law passed in May 2010, providing for the establishment of community and citizens' radio broadcasting services, should in theory allow the telecoms regulator Subtel to allocate a range of frequencies for community radio stations with a signal strength of 25 watts or less. This implies the transfer or reallocation of frequencies, of which the consortium Iberoamericana Radio Chile (owned by the Spanish group PRISA) alone has 211.

On 21 August this year, PRISA refused to sign an agreement to this effect, which had been worked out by Subtel and representatives of the broadcasting sector over the course of a year. The group rejected technical adjustments to its own radio stations and made its approval of the deal dependent on the renewal of some of its frequencies. The Santiago appeal court must now rule on the matter.

Reporters Without Borders supports a demand by the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters for the application of the agreement reached by Subtel and for the conditions imposed by PRISA to be ignored.

The other principal problem for community broadcasters is section 36B of the general law on telecommunications, passed in 1982 during the dictatorship. It provides for a custodial sentence for broadcasting on an illegal frequency.

Under section 36B, the broadcasting equipment of the community station Radio Vecina, in Collipulli in the Araucania region, was seized on 28 August and its representative Victor Diaz detained for 10 hours.

Three other recent instances of threats to apply section 36B have been brought to the attention of Reporters Without Borders, affecting the indigenous station Kimche Mapu, also in Araucania, Radio Lógica in the Santiago region, and Radio Galáctika near Valparaiso. The press freedom organization calls for the repeal of such a legal provision that criminalises small media outlets which, in many cases, have been awaiting legal status for more than 10 years.

Finally, as popular unrest and student protests are again on the rise, Reporters Without Borders hopes that the arrests, sometimes brutal, of photographers attending demonstrations do not occur again, such as was the case with the freelancers Juan Pablo Reyes and Tamara Carrasco on 26 August, La Nacion photographer Esteban Garay on 28 August, and Víctor Arce of the website Factor Absoluto the following day.

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This publication presents the findings of the media development assessment in Mongolia that began in 2012 to determine the state of the media in the country. The assessment was based on the UNESCO/IPDC Media Development Indicators (MDIs), an internationally recognized analytical tool used to provide detailed overviews of national media landscapes and related media development priorities.

“After the initial optimism during the Euromaidan movement, many journalists have become disillusioned. They are faced with the triple challenge of the war in the Eastern part of the country, the economic crisis and the digitalization of mass media.”

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The government uses draconian laws such as the sedition provisions of the penal code, the criminal defamation law, and laws dealing with hate speech to silence dissent. These laws are vaguely worded, overly broad, and prone to misuse, and have been repeatedly used for political purposes against critics at the national and state level.

In recent years, the space afforded to civil society to operate freely has been shrinking dramatically across the world, presenting a serious threat to democracy and human rights. Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) have been especially badly affected by this shrinking political space.

The report is a frank assessment of the recent regime of online censorship and mass surveillance against a backdrop of longstanding, serious abuses of the judicial process and attacks on freedom of expression by Turkish authorities.

The report surveys the rocky landscape for media and public discourse since the ruling military junta lifted the curtain on the southeast Asian nation in 2012 after five decades of isolation from the modern world.

With the environment now recognized as a major challenge for humankind, Reporters Without Borders believes that particular attention should be paid to the journalists who take greats risk to investigate sensitive, environment-related subjects. The report highlights a steady deterioration in the situation for environmental reporters, who are increasingly exposed to many kinds of pressure, threats and violence.

The Pakistani government has significantly expanded its communication interception activities. This Privacy International report covers the intelligence services plan to capture all IP-traffic in Pakistan and other initiatives, pointing to gaps in the laws governing surveillance.

The need to regulate the transfer of surveillance technologies that pose a risk to human rights has been largely recognised by EU institutions and some EU member states. It is no longer a question of if the EU should do more in this area, but how.

Defamation and insult remain criminal offences in Portugal punishable by up to two years behind bars despite the fact that a number of international human rights bodies have found criminal defamation to be a disproportionate restriction on freedom of expression.

Despite its Constitutional commitment to free speech, India’s legal system makes it surprisingly easy to silence others. Routine corruption, inefficiency, and the selective enforcement of vague and overbroad laws allow individuals, or small groups, to censor opinions they find distasteful. - See more at: http://www.pen-international.org/the-india-report-executive-summary-and-key-findings/#sthash.TIIM2xbu.dpuf

Press freedom in the Philippines continued to be under attack from 2014 to 2015. The killing of journalists is continuing, with four journalists killed from May 2014 to May 2015. The trial of the accused masterminds of the Ampatuan (Maguindanao) Massacre and their supposed henchmen is continuing, but with a primary accused was released, while a witness in the same case was killed.

The year 2014 saw Malaysians standing up to exercise the rights guaranteed under the Federal Constitution, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. This continues a growing trend of facing up to state oppression. Unfortunately, this has been met with increasing repression. Malaysia has seen a concerted crackdown on the freedom of expression in the year 2014, which has escalated even further in 2015.

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